Tag-Archive for » New Jersey «
Children on board call parents to say driver was swerving and falling asleep
What’s going on with Mary J. Blige? She’s selling her New Jersey mansion, she’s no longer wearing her wedding ring and she has dropped her husband as her manager. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Mary is releasing My Life II: The Journey Continues in September.
According to court documents, the Gambino and Genovese families have engaged in a multidecade conspiracy to influence and control the unions and businesses that work on the New York-area piers. According to court documents, Stephen Depiro managed the Genovese family’s illegal activities on the New Jersey piers, including the Genovese family’s long-standing conspiracy to extort ILA members each year during the Christmas period, when the longshoremen annually receive a portion of royalty payments paid by shipping companies using the ports of New York and New Jersey. Depiro and others allegedly conspired with his cousin, Nunzio LaGrasso, an associate of the Genovese family and the vice-president of ILA Local 1478 in Newark, to extort ILA members each year.
In Manhattan, 26 defendants, primarily from the Gambino family, have been charged in two indictments that include charges related to racketeering conspiracy, murder, narcotics trafficking, extortion, assault, arson, loansharking, illegal gambling, mail and wire fraud, and stolen property crimes.
Among the defendants charged are Joseph Corrozo, 69, who has served at times as the Gambino family consigliere; Bartolomeo Vernace, 61, a member of the Gambino family administration, who is also charged in Brooklyn; Gambino family captains Alphonse Trucchio, 34, and Louis Mastrangelo, 66; and Gambino soldiers Michael Roccaforte, 34,Anthony Moscatiello, 40, and Vincenzo Frogiero, 43.
According to court documents filed in the Manhattan cases, the criminal conductallegedly occurred for more than two decades, from the late 1980s to about 2010. Gambino associate Todd LaBarca, 39, is charged with the 2001 conspiracy to murder and murder of Gambino family associate Marty Bosshart. According to the indictment, Bosshart was murdered on Jan. 2, 2002, with a single gunshot to the back of his head, and his body was left on the side of the road in Queens. According to court documents, a cooperating witness consensually recorded more than 100 conversations with other members and associates of the Gambino family, including conversations with LaBarca about the murder. In addition, according to court documents, the cocaine and marijuana trafficking involved multiple thousands of kilograms of the illegal drugs.
Finally, an indictment unsealed in Providence charges two defendants – longtime boss of the New England
LCN Luigi Manocchio, 83, and LCN associate Thomas Iafrate, 61, – with extortion and extortion conspiracy. The extortion conspiracy allegedly spans almost two decades of illegal activity and involves the extortion of local pornographic bookstores and nightclubs, including the Satin Doll and the Cadillac Lounge, both in Providence.
In what U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder hailed as the FBI’s “largest single day operation” against organized crime, more than 800 state, local and federal authorities charged 127 individuals with mob-related crimes in four districts in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
More than 110 of the 127 charged defendants have been arrested, and will appear in federal court in the districts in which they are charged. The charges relate to a wide range of alleged illegal activity, including murder, murder conspiracy, loansharking, arson, narcotics trafficking, extortion, robbery, illegal gambling and labor racketeering, in some cases occurring over decades.
Voters in northern New Jersey have chosen to retain a mayor who is facing federal corruption charges.
Ridgefield voters chose not to recall Mayor Anthony Suarez. According to unofficial results provided by city clerk Linda Prina, 1,023 voters rejected the recall and 985 voted for it.
Ridgefield has between 5,000 and 6,000 registered voters.
Suarez has remained in office since his arrest last July during a massive federal sweep. He is scheduled to go to trial in early October.
Suarez and a tax preparer are accused of taking $10,000 from a federal informant posing as a corrupt developer seeking building permits.
Two other mayors, Peter Cammarano III of Hoboken and Dennis Elwell of Secaucus, also were among the 44 people arrested but stepped down soon afterward
Stedman Graham was born on March 6, 1951 in Whitesboro, NJ, a community founded in 1901 by a group of prominent African-Americans which included Booker T. Washington and Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Stedman attended Middle Township High School where the 6’6? phenom starred on the varsity basketball team.
After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Hardin-Simmons University, he played professionally in Europe for a few years before returning to the U.S. to work on his Master’s in Education from Ball State.
An enduring, high-profile relationship with Oprah Winfrey has perhaps overshadowed the long list of business and charitable accomplishments accumulated over the course of Mr. Graham’s impressive career as Chairman and CEO of S. Graham & Associates, a management and marketing consulting firm specializing in the corporate and educational fields.
A prolific writer, he is also the author of ten books, two of which became NY Times bestsellers. And he has taught at several colleges, including a course on leadership at the University of Illinois and one on strategic management at Northwestern.
Most importantly, Mr. Graham has exhibited a lifelong commitment to community via Athletes Against Drugs (AAD), a non-profit organization he founded in 1985 which remains dedicated to developing leadership in underserved youth through scholarships and education. Recently, Stedman talked to me about his work with AAD and other projects.
Black people must leave, NJ Walmart announcer says. Blacks must leave store, NJ Walmart announcer says, upsetting customers; company investigates. A worker gathers shopping carts near a Wal-Mart store Wednesday, March 17, 2010, in Washington Township, N.J. Wal-Mart officials are reviewing security tapes after an announcement was made for “all black people” to leave the southern New Jersey store. Shortly before 7 p.m., Sunday, a male voice came over the public-address system at the Route 42 store in Washington Township and calmly announced: “Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now.” Management later apologized.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — A Walmart store announcement ordering black people to leave brought chagrin and apologies Wednesday from leaders of the company, which has built a fragile trust among minority communities. A male voice came over the public-address system Sunday evening at a store in Washington Township, in southern New Jersey, and calmly announced: “Attention, Walmart customers: All black people, leave the store now.” Shoppers in the store at the time said a manager quickly got on the public-address system and apologized for the remark. And while it was unclear whether a rogue patron or an employee was responsible for the comment, many customers expressed their anger to store management. “I want to know why such statements are being made, because it flies in the face of what we teach our children about tolerance for all,” said Sheila Ellington, who was in the store at the time with a friend. “If this was meant to be a prank, there’s only one person laughing, and it’s not either one of us.” Ellington, of Monroe, and her friend Patricia Covington said they plan to boycott the retailer until they’re assured the issue has been addressed so it doesn’t happen again. The pair said they were stunned when they heard the announcement and initially believed they had misheard it. But once the words sank in, they grew angry. “I depended on Walmart for all my needs, because the store has pretty much everything you could want,” Covington said. “But until this issue is addressed in a way I’m comfortable with, I can’t walk through those doors again.” Officials with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., said that the announcement was “unacceptable” and that they’re trying to determine who made it and how it happened. “We are just as appalled by this incident as our customers,” the company said in a statement. “Whoever did this is just wrong and acted in an inappropriate manner. Clearly, this is completely unacceptable to us and to our customers.”
This is not the first time the retailer has faced such problems. There have been several past instances of black customers claiming they were treated unfairly at Walmart stores, and the company faced lawsuits alleging that women were passed over in favor of men for pay raises and promotions. In February 2009, the retailer paid $17.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in its hiring of truck drivers. And the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the company in May 2009, claiming some Hispanic employees at a Sam’s Club subsidiary in California were subjected to a hostile work environment. That suit alleges managers failed to stop repeated verbal harassment, including the use of derogatory words, against employees of Mexican descent. However, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has said the company has worked hard in recent years to show it cares about diversity. Bill Mitchell, a former Walmart employee who was shopping Wednesday at the store, said that he was saddened to hear about the announcement but that “as a black man, I’ve heard worse things.” As customer Sharon Osbourne, of Williamstown, left the store Wednesday, she called the announcement “appalling, stupid and sad.”
Investigators have found three more sets of human remains on a beach near New York City, bringing to eight the number of corpses found there.
Police in Suffolk County, New York suspect a serial killer.
Four dead prostitutes were found nearby in December; a fifth corpse found last week has not been identified.
The latest bodies were found in a patch of dense brush on Gilgo Beach, a barrier island south of Long Island, about 45 miles (70km) east of New York.
Police scouring the beach on foot, from helicopters and at the end of fire engine ladders discovered the three newest bodies on Monday, about a mile east of where the first group of bodies were discovered.
Officials cautioned they had yet to link the newest discoveries conclusively with the five bodies previously found.
The remains were separated by about 500m. The search was expected to continue on Tuesday.
It took investigators a month to identify the first group of remains using DNA and dental records as prostitutes who had arranged to meet clients through Craigslist and other websites, police have said.
Investigators continue to search for the remains of Shannan Gilbert, a New Jersey woman who was last seen in May at nearby Oak Beach, where she had arranged to meet a client she had met through Craigslist.
A resident of the beach told authorities a woman believed to Ms Gilbert came to his door at 0445 pleading for help, then fled.